Conventional clothes hangers typically comprise an integrally formed rigid structure having a hook means or the like for attachment to a hanger rod, a pair of downwardly angled upper members extending in opposite directions from the hook, with or without a lower transverse member extending between the upper members. The shoulders of a garment, such as a shirt, coat or jacket, are draped over the upper members of the hanger to suspend the garment from the hanger in a generally upright orientation so as to reduce the risk of wrinkling or creasing garment. When the lower traverse member is present, additional garments, such as pants or trousers may be draped over and/or suspended from the lower transverse member to similarly reduce the risk of wrinkling or creasing of the garment.
Clothes closets in the typical home are often crowded with hanging items making it difficult to secure or remove an item to or from a hanger. Tight necked clothes such as shirts, sweaters and the like are difficult to put on conventional hangers which tend to stretch and/or deform the tight neck when placed thereon. Hangers in hotels and cloak rooms have a tendency to disappear and thus are increasingly manufactured with a closed hook so as to make them non-removable from the hanger bar and difficult to secure or remove items from the hanger. Suitcases come equipped with non-removable or difficult to remove hangers making it difficult to secure or remove items from hangers. There is a continuing need for a collapsible clothes hanger which allows easy and convenient securing, hanging and removal of clothes therefrom.
A variety of foldable clothes hangers have been proposed in the past which are foldable into a relatively compact unit for storage and transportation, and which may be deployed to form a conventional hanger when needed. U.S. Pat. No. 2,420,116 to Walters discloses a foldable clothes hanger using chain members which loosely fall on collapse and may become entangled with other items or objects.
U.S. Pat, No. 5,044,534 to Hwang discloses another prior art foldable clothes hanger. In order to collapse the hanger in Hwang, however, a connection on the lower branch must first be disengaged, in order to separate this component into two distinct pieces.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,562 to Brink et al. discloses a foldable clothes hanger wherein the receptacle bearing the hook protrudes downward and significantly extends into the hanger triangle.
As a result of these and other disadvantages associated with the prior art, a need exists for an improved collapsible garment hanger.